The stranded astronauts just can’t catch a break. Now it seems that even if they have to catch a ride home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, they’ll have to ride as cargo.
It seems that back in 2014 when NASA awarded the contracts to Boeing and SpaceX, Musk tried to work with Boeing to standardize the suit sizes and the suit hookups. But Boeing refused.
So now not only will the astronauts wearing the Boeing suits not fit into the Crew Dragon seats, they won’t be able to even plug their suits into the Crew Dragon systems.
So if they come home that way, they’ll have to be strapped down in the cargo area like luggage.
And since the SpaceX suits are custom-made for each wearer, they can’t really have SpaceX-compatible suits sent up for them to use.
* * * * *
Tomorrow Jan and I are getting our haircuts, now that Leslie is back from her medical leave. Then we’re going up to Webster to check out the newly-reopened Texas Huddle. Unfortunately, Juana is not working there this week, so we’ll try to see her on Saturday back at BoomerJack’s.
* * * * *
Yes, though it’s a little early, Fall is officially here.
We’ve just had the first Pumpkin Spice sighting.
And a reader wanted to know why I said that Jan’s toes were ‘sparkly’ after her pedicure this past
Saturday. That’s because they are.
Thought For The Day:
Licenses & Permits:
When the government takes away your right to do something and then sells it back to you.
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2013 – A Day with Landon
2014 – Gonna Need A Bigger Boat
2015 – New A/C Installation Project
2017 – Pet Peeves and CFS
2018 – Happy Almost Birthday, Landon!
2019 – It Works!
2021 – The Big One One!
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
August 19, 2009
Good Mexican food in Maine?
We headed out from our overnight at Walmart about 10 am, heading toward Bangor, ME, about 150 miles away.
As we were passing through beautiful downtown Gorham, NH, we remembered what we’d heard about the great breakfast at Welch’s Restaurant, so we decided to stop.
Luckily there was a spot on the next block where we could safely and easily park the rig and toad.
The meal was really good. Jan said her Blueberry Pancakes were the best she’d had since Whitehorse, BC last year, and from her, that’s a lot. And my Meatlover’s Breakfast Sandwich really hit the spot.
After our meal we again headed east on US 2… into a maze of road work, one after the other.
Apparently they’re in the process of four-laning US 2, so long stretches of it were down to one lane with flag people, or even traffic lights, governing land direction flow. Several times we sat for as long as 10 minutes.
But finally we pulled into Pumpkin Patch RV Resort in Hermon, ME, just west of Bangor, about 3 pm, and got set up.
After checking with the office for recommendations, we headed out to Pepina’s Mexican Café for what turned out to be some excellent Mexican food.
Coming back home, Jan sat outside with Mister while I finished aligning the satellite dish.
Tomorrow we don’t have much on the agenda, probably just rest up, sleep late, and make a Walmart / Sam’s run.
August 19, 2010
Landon Update
Well, this morning started off exciting with a call from our son-in-law Lowell about 9 am telling us that Brandi was in labor so they weren’t going to have to induce it.
Then our son, Chris called about 15 minutes later to be sure we had heard the news.
Hearing this, we went ahead and booked Jan a flight out of Chicago Midway this afternoon at 5:50 pm and she finished up her packing. She’d done most of it last night in anticipation of this happening.
We left Elkhart about 1pm, stopping off at a CVS to get a new battery for Jan’s watch. She took it off Friday, November 30th, 2008, her last day of work, and hasn’t worn it since. So it definitely needed a new battery.
When she retires, she retires!
Of course, things can’t go too smoothly. About 30 miles down the road we had a flat tire on the right rear of the truck.
My tire pressure monitor system alerted me that I was losing pressure in that tire, luckily right before an exit, so I pulled off thinking I would find a tire place to put on my spare. But as luck would have it, by the time I got through the toll booth the tire was down to about 10 pounds, so I pulled over to a nice big parking area and started changing it myself.
And as I was removing the old tire I found a nail sticking out of it.
We got to Chicago Midway about 4:30 pm, in plenty of time for Jan’s 5:50pm flight, only to find out that it was delayed until 6:50.
Bummer!
We had both brought something to read in case this happened, but ran into a problem. I had planned to stay at the airport until Jan’s flight took off, but we found there was nowhere to sit outside the gate area. We were hoping for a restaurant or something so we could sit and wait until it got closer to her boarding time. But no luck.
So after talking it over, Jan said I should just go ahead and start home. After thinking it over I told Jan to go through security and as soon as she got checked in at her gate, I would go ahead and leave.
She called about 20 minutes later, so I headed home. I was surprised to find almost no traffic on the way out of Chicago, I guess because I was on the toll road, but it was smooth sailing all the way.
Got back to the rig about 9 pm, and am now tracking Jan’s flight on a website called FlightStats. You enter the airline and flight number and it shows you a real-time map of the flight position, along with the speed, altitude, and distance from the destination.
Also talked with Lowell who said Brandi is doing fine. They’ve given her a pill to keep things moving along, and are still looking for Master Landon to arrive tomorrow sometime.
As it stands right now, it’s 10:47 pm EDT and Jan’s plane is 22 miles out of Houston at 3500 feet, doing 315 miles an hour.
FlightStats says Jan’s plane has landed, so now I’ll wait to hear from her after she meets up with Chris.
It’s 11:04 and Jan just called to say she’d met up with the kids and they were going downstairs to get her luggage, and that she’d call me tomorrow.
Glad to know she’s safe and sound in Houston.
August 19, 2011
Lasagna and Laminate . . .
After coffee this morning, I drove down to the Thousand Trail’s office to settle up. We’ve used up our 50 free days and now have to pay $5 a day, still a great deal for 30 amp full hookups.
After lunch, I started working on another chore on my list. First up today was fixing a problem with my A/C intakes.
I’ve found that the open areas on the A/C intakes would allow the thin foam filters to be sucked up into the opening, causing the filter to stretch and tear.
So I purchased a couple of pieces of chicken wire, and using Guerilla Tape, taped them over the intake without obstructing the airflow.
I also found a thicker foam filter, 1/4” instead of 1/8”. After cutting it to the right size, I placed it on the grill and screwed it back on the ceiling.
Another job checked off the list.
Next I started trying to unbolt the computer desk from the floor so I can remove the carpet under it before I start laying the new laminate flooring. They definitely didn’t want this thing to move, as it is really fastened down. This will be a multi-day job.
Our daughter Brandi called a little before 6 to talk about Landon’s 1st birthday party tomorrow. She’s having the party at a friend’s house up in Katy, TX and plans on Skyping it so we can watch some of it too.
For dinner, Jan thawed out and heated up some lasagna. Along with cheese sticks and fresh hot garlic bread, it was a great meal. And we still have enough for another night.
Then to top it off a great day, our son Chris called a little before 9. We really missed them at the reunion last week, and are really looking forward to seeing them in November when we get back to Houston.
August 19, 2013
A Day with Landon . . .
Today was our chance to spend the day with Landon, and his other grandparents, Sonja and Lendell, so about 10am we headed back over to Brandi’s to meet up with them.
But our first stop was at the Kroger’s near her house to fill up the truck with gas. At $3.33 it was the cheapest around, and with my $.30 a gallon Rewards Card discount, $3.03 was a great price.
Getting to Brandi’s and meeting up with Sonja, Lendell, and Landon, we decided to take their Ford Escape since Landon’s car seat was already installed in it. Our first destination was Sandy McGee’s in Richmond, about 10 miles south.
Jan and I have been eating at Sandy McGee’s for over 20 years. Back in the 1990’s Jan worked here in Richmond/Rosenberg for about 8 years at what was then Polly Ryon Hospital. She and her coworkers ate here regularly, and when I was in the area we would always eat here too.
Their menu consists of delicious sandwiches, salads, and soups. Nothing is plain jane. There’s some extra special touch to every item. They are known for their great fresh fruit salads, all year long.
But what they are most widely known for is their Broccoli-Cheese Soup. To me, the texture is more of a bisque, but whatever you call it, it’s delicious.
When I get the sandwich, fruit salad, cup of soup combo, I always upgrade the cup to a bowl. It’s that good.
We were happy to see that Sonja and Lendell liked the place as much as we do, and Landon went through his 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich and fresh fruit like a buzz saw.
Our next stop was supposed to be Katy Mills Mall, back up north on I-10, but it got delayed. Since Landon had eaten so well, and it was now really his nap time, he fell asleep just a few minutes after we got back in the car. So we decided to just drive around until he woke up.
So an hour and a half later we were at the Mall (the kid’s a really good napper). They have a great kid’s play area that Landon really loves. So while Jan and Sonja supervised Landon, Lendell and I walked down to the Food Court to people-watch and have a smoothie.
After about an hour Landon was ready for his second treat, a train ride. The Mall had this really cute train that runs all around the Mall. No tracks, just battery power.
After Landon and Jan had done the Casey Jones thing (without the big crash at the end) we all headed over to Books-A-Million for some light browsing. Jan was looking for some more books to read during our upcoming gate-guarding sabbatical. Last year she read 84 books in 4 months, so she wants to be sure she doesn’t run out.
Wrapping things up at the Mall, we all headed back over to Brandi’s to drop off Sonja, Lendell, and Landon, and say our goodbyes. They’re leaving for home in Oklahoma this evening, but we’ll see Landon again Wednesday night when we get together with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for one last time until November.
On our way home we stopped off at Kroger’s again, but this time for some of their Private Selection brand coffee. It’s one of our favorites, but there’s no Kroger’s where we’ll be gate guarding so we wanted to stock up.
We got back to the rig a little after 6pm. Tomorrow we’re going down to the Clear Lake area to take care of some errands and eat lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico for some of their delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup.
August 19, 2014
We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat . . .
With no trip down to Webster today, it was another day to take it easy and goof off. Pretty much too hot to do anything outside, although it was actually a little cooler today. Only 98, rather than yesterday’s 101. Every little bit helps, I guess.
A little before 5pm we lost shore power. When it didn’t come back on in a few minutes, I went out and checked the power pedestal. I took my 3 light tester with me and plugged it into the 20amp socket.
No power. And cycling the breaker didn’t help. Nor did resetting the GFI button
While I’m standing there thinking, I hear something familiar. The outside AC unit is running at the bathhouse on the other side of the rig. So the power’s not out at the park
Going back to the pedestal, I took another look at the breakers. I had kind of concentrated on the 20amp power and hadn’t cycled the 50amp breaker. It looked OK but when I touched it to flip it, it dropped into the middle position showing it had really blown. So I cycled it and the power came back on.
So I had been misled by a faulty 20 breaker or socket. But the other thing I noticed was that the 50 amp breaker was almost too hot to touch, an indication that either the breaker has a problem, or the connections inside are bad. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.
Since I’m from Alabama, and we were recently there for a couple of weeks, I was interested to see this story about this record-sized alligator caught near Camden, AL
One thing that surprised me is that Camden, although near the Alabama River, is about 100 miles from the coast, and even further in ‘river’ miles. That’s a long way for a gator to swim, especially one this big
This big boy measured out at 15 feet long, and when they tried to weigh it, it broke the winch. Finally using a backhoe, they weighed it out at 1,011.5 pounds.
And it looks very possible that this might be a new world record. A couple of months ago, the Safari Club International declared a 14 foot 8 inch gator caught in 2007 and weighing 880 pounds as a new world record. Sounds like this one has it beat.
The other thing surprising about this is that the boat that they used to capture this gator was only 17 feet long. According to the article, they several times found themselves being dragged around, towed up and down the river by the gator.
To paraphrase ‘Jaws’, “I’d want a bigger boat.”
Tomorrow Jan and I have our trip down to Webster for Jan’s breast cancer checkup.
August 19, 2015
A Good Excuse . . .
I started on my new A/C installation project first calling the office to see if by any chance they had a tractor with a front loader on it that I could use to lift the unit up, but no luck with that.
Then I dragged the box from the back seat of the truck and over to the patio. I had already popped the straps and removed the top last night so I could get the instruction booklets out.
There is a small wood pallet underneath the box that I figured was bolted to the bottom of the AC and that I could use to lift the whole thing up on the roof. But as it turned out, everything was just stacked together and held in place by the two straps that I had already cut off to get to the manuals.
Foraging ahead I unboxed everything and turned the unit on its side to check out the control box and how it was wired up.
That’s when I found there was no control box. So then I went round and round with a guy from PPL who said the control box was in the outside unit. I said “No, it’s not. All I have in the outside unit is a foot-long cable with a nine-pin connector on it.”
Then he said that then it must be in the inside unit. I told him it wasn’t, and that my inside unit had no controls of any kind on it, since it was for a ducted system with an external thermostat. Like this.
Finally giving up, I called Coleman, and after I finally got through to somebody, (apparently they’re not really geared to working with the retail consumer) we figured out what the problem was.
Normally the control box is part of the inside unit and ties in with the controls on the cover. But since I was using an external thermostat, there were no controls there, and I would need to purchase a separate control box. Which looked like this.
ROAD TRIP!
By now it was 2:30 and we’d have to hustle to get into Houston and PPL before the rush hour hit. So by 2:45 we were on our way in.
PPL’s 75 miles away, but a good part of the distance has a 75 MPH speed limit, so we were there a few minutes after 4pm and back on our way about 4:20. But that 20 minutes was just enough for the going-home travel to sock in. and it was now bumper-to-bumper on the Beltway.
It ended up taking us almost as long to make the 30 mile trip back to Brandi’s as it did to make the 75 mile trip into PPL. We had an Amazon package delivered there today, and we wanted to see if they wanted to have dinner with us, but they already had other plans. Jan had already said that our surprise trip into Houston was a good excuse to have dinner at Torchy’s Tacos, so that’s where we headed.
Torchy’s has about a dozen restaurants around the state, and it’s not your average taco place. They’ve got tacos with Blackened Salmon, Seared Ahi Tuna, Fried Chicken, Grilled Portobello Mushrooms, and Fried Avocado. And more. You can check out their menu here: Torchy’s Menu
Jan got the Brushfire Taco, which has Jamaican jerk chicken, grilled jalapeños, mango, sour cream & cilantro, and is served with Diablo sauce on a flour tortilla, along with a Baja Shrimp Taco, which has hand-battered fried shrimp with cooked cabbage slaw topped with pickled jalapeños & onions, queso fresco, cilantro & a wedge of lime.
I got the Green Chile Pork Taco, which has slow-roasted pork carnitas with green chiles and topped with queso fresco, cilantro, onions, & a wedge of lime, as well as a Grilled Jalapeño Sausage Taco, with shredded cheese & Pico de Gallo, served with Poblano Sauce and on a flour tortilla.
All really good, and a great place to eat.
We were back on the road about 6:30, getting home about 7:30, after another busy day.
So how do I get it up on the roof?
August 19, 2016
Sweet Rice and Food Trucks . . .
Although it did rain for a short time this morning, the afternoon was clear and not too hot. In fact the forecast is for high 80’s to 90 for the next 10 days or so, and that sounds nice, especially for August in Texas.
Early in the afternoon, I started making gate-guarding calls. I left a message with Jamie of Gate Guard Services, and hopefully he’ll call back tomorrow.
Guard 1 took my name and email address and said they’d email me some paperwork to fill out. She also wanted to know when we’d be available, and seemed pleased when I told her next week. But as of tonight I still haven’t received any email from them.
As far as the wind farm thing, the girl at SiteWatch said she’d email Buster and he would call me as soon as he was free. But so far I haven’t heard from him either.
If I don’t hear anything in the next day or so, I’ll start calling down my list of gate-guarding companies and see what I can stir up.
Later I spent some time working on new web stuff, getting things set up for a new company’s website.
A little after 4pm Jan and I headed up to Ellinger to have the Catfish Buffet at Peter’s BBQ . It was as good as usual, and at $10.95, at least they didn’t raise the price again.
Besides the Fried Catfish and Fried Shrimp which are both delicious, I really enjoy all the veggies and salads almost as much. Corn on the cob, boiled red potatoes, pinto beans, green beans with bacon and onions, boiled cabbage, cooked carrots, mac and cheese, and sweet rice. The salad selection is good too, with potato salad, fresh pea salad, Cole slaw, Jell-0 salad, and macaroni salad.
As for desserts, they’ve got banana pudding, peach cobbler, blackberry cobbler, and soft ice cream.
All in all, a very good buffet, especially if they don’t raise the price for the 3rd time.
I was surprised by the sweet rice. It looked like mashed potatoes, but the texture was different and it was sweet. I’d never had it before, so I had to ask what it was. It was good, but the sweetness was a surprise when I first tasted it.
We spent a few minutes talking to one of the ladies working there who confirmed my thought that all the vegetables were fresh, and the meats, like brisket, ribs, chicken, steak for chicken fried steak and hamburger, etc., are all bought fresh every morning.
And it certainly shows . . . and tastes.
Brandi’s been off this week so she and Landon spent the day at the Typhoon Texas Waterpark right down the road from them.
Then later the entire family all headed out to the Katy Food Truck Park to have dinner. Lendel and Sonja, Landon’s other grandparents are down from OK for Landon’s 6th birthday party tomorrow. Jan and I thought about going into Katy for it, but Jan’s on the 3rd day coming off a migraine, so we begged off until we see them tomorrow.
We’ll head into Brandi’s tomorrow about 11:30 and then on to the Main Event Entertainment complex for Landon’s birthday party. until around 4pm.
Really looking forward to it, and also seeing Lendel and Sonja again.
August 19, 2017
Pet Peeves and CFS . . .
First off, some pet peeves of mine.
First up, read all the other comments before you post a comment on Facebook, especially on one that asked a question about something. Being the 14th person to answer the inquiry doesn’t add to the conversation, especially if your answer disagrees with mine.
Second, please don’t turn on your emergency flashers in heavy rain. Although legal in a few, it is illegal in most states.
The reason I bring this up was due to the fact that recently we were driving in the rig when a heavy rainstorm came up. I slowed down a good bit and a lot of cars passed us, just flashing away.
The trouble was that as soon as they all got about 50 yards ahead of us, all the yellow and red flashing lights coalesced into a blinding mishmash reflecting around in the rain. You no longer had any idea how many vehicles were ahead of you, or how far ahead they were.
Plus I don’t think many people realize that when your emergency flashers are on, your turn signals don’t work on a lot of vehicles. So you can’t safely signal a lane change.
But the real problem is the number of deaths this has caused, including wiping out an entire family.
Picture this. You’re driving your semi along in heavy rain, pretty much following the ‘colorful mishmash’ ahead of you. But what you don’t realize is that a family has pulled over onto the shoulder to safely sit out the storm, and turned their flashers on as they’re supposed to.
And you, following all the flashing lights in front of you, slam into the rear of the family car at 50mph.
And it’s happened a number of times around the country.
About 4pm Jan and I out to the Fish Pond restaurant north of here on I-45 to meet our old friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt for dinner.
But our first stop was at the park dumpster to throw in three MORE bags of bad food from the fridge and freezer. &*^%^&&%!
Jan had the Catfish Platter,
while I had the Chicken Fried Steak with Fried Okra and Mashed Potatoes.
I must say I was simply aghast at the fact that a waitress at a restaurant in Texas asked me if I wanted white or BROWN gravy on my CFS.
Oh, the horror! Is nothing sacred?
As is usual with our dinners with Ed and Debi, we spent the usual 3 hours just talking about anything and everything, not leaving until after 7:30.
Hopefully we’ll be able to get together again before we leave for Colorado River on the 27th. But then they’ll be following us over on the 29th, so it’ll all work out.
Tomorrow afternoon we’re heading down to Brandi’s and Lowell’s to meet them at the Rainforest Café in Katy Mills Mall to celebrate Landon’s 7th birthday.
Really looking forward to it.
August 19, 2018
Happy Almost Birthday, Landon . . .
After a quiet morning and coffee, of course, Jan and I headed up to Brandi’s in Katy. We were all getting together for Landon’s pre-birthday birthday.
His real birthday is tomorrow, August 20th, but today we were all meeting at his favorite Rainforest Café over in Katy Mills Mall.
Not only were Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper with us, but Landon’s Aunt Sherry as well. In addition, close friends, Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox were also there.]
And as a side note, Chantelle is the travel agent who’s putting together our upcoming European River Cruise/London/Paris trip.
After we’d finished our meals, and Landon had opened his presents, they brought a Lava Birthday Cake for everyone to share.
Later, getting our hugs, Chris and Linda headed back to Kingsland, about 4 hours away, while Jan and I, along with Miss Piper, left for Clear Lake. We dropped Piper off at her apartment before we finally got home a little after 4:30pm.
Brandi and Lowell are closing on their new house this coming Friday, but it could be Thursday. Then just as soon as the closing is done, the movers are scheduled to show up. They expect to be completely moved by the end of the day.
Landon still has another birthday party to go to, this time on September 8th at the Smith Ranch north of Katy once again. This will be the one with all his friends, along with the giant water slide, the petting zoo, and a lot more.
August 19, 2019
It Works . . .
My WiFi Module came in today, and I also bought home some CAT-6 cable to wire it up. I pull out a twisted pair of wires and it’s perfect for making small connections.
It was easy to figure out which pads to solder to since they were only two that had a circuit trace going to them.
Then once I had it hooked up, I wired it into the module.
Then I downloaded the app and after a few times going round and round I finally got the module paired with the app and I was good to go.
Once I confirmed that the app would turn the machine on and off, I then linked it with Amazon Alexa and I was done.
For now.
I’ve got a small plastic box ordered that I will use to mount the module and then double-stick tape it to the back on the machine.
As it stands right now, I’m setting aside Thursday to do the rear brakes on the truck. Hopefully the weather will hold, though there is a 30% chance of rain.
August 19, 2021
The Big One One!
After a quiet morning, we drove over to Gator’s about 1pm for lunch once again.
Jan got the Strawberry Walnut Salad with Chicken again,
while I got my fav Blackened Chicken Breast Sandwich with Bacon and a side of Texas Toothpicks. And the Sweet Potato Waffle fries, of course.
We also spent some time with Margie, the owner, talking about all the new menu items coming up. We’ve actually known Margie since the 90’s when she was a manager/supervisor for Monterey’s Mexican Kitchen so it’s always nice to see her again.
And in more Monterey’s news, their location on the other side of the shopping center from Gator’s, that’s been closed since Hurricane Harvey in 2017 is getting close to reopening. They finally started renovating the place a few months ago, and it looks like it’s going to be real soon now. So close that there was a Coke truck out front. So any day now.
Tomorrow is our grandson Landon’s birthday, the big One One. And rather than the big get-togethers he’s had in the past, often with his BFF Sophie,
this time Landon just wanted a small family party. So Jan’s riding into work with me tomorrow and then we’ll head up to Brandi’s about 3:30.
Looking forward to it.
And we’ve got another one scheduled for September. Our granddaughter Piper’s birthday is the 7th of September, and her Aunt Brandi’s is on the 15th, so on the weekend in between, Chris, Linda, and Piper are all coming down to Brandi’s for a big family party.
Can’t wait.
I spent time this afternoon updating the software on one of our digital photo frames. We have two, one with photos of family, friends, and our RV travels, and the other one from our European trip in May 2019. But I had been meaning to add some photos from our Christmas in NYC trip so I thought I’d work on that today.
However while I was doing that I also tried to fix a weird problem. Even though all the photos are at 4032 x 3024 resolution, for reason a few are rotated 90° to the right. So trying to figure this out, I went online to see if the company was any help.
The first thing I found was that I was about 8 versions behind in updating the firmware on the photo frame. Well, to start with, who knew that a digital photo frame even needed firmware updates? But it was worth a shot.
The process was pretty simple. Just download the correct firmware update file for your model, put it on an SD card, and plug it into the frame. And a couple of minutes it’s done.
And it didn’t help.
So I went back to take a closer look at the photos themselves. And I can’t find any difference at all. In one case, the camera wasn’t moved, and the two photos were only about 30 seconds apart. So right now I don’t know what is happening.
But I’ll keep looking.
August 19, 2022
I Still Don’t Know How He Did It . . .
I spent part of today finalizing the design for the faceplate of a line of epilators that we’re having custom-made in Poland. We wanted something clean and simple with our logo on it.
My client is very happy with it so I am too.
And if we order 10 at a time there’s no extra charge for the custom faceplate. Nice.
This past Wednesday when I was coming home I found this guy blocking my left turn trying to make his left turn.
And everyone else’s too.
What’s hard to see here is that there is a deep ditch on the left of this street, and a power pole on the right. So I’m still not sure how he made the turn. Or actually, if he did. I checked later and there were no tire marks down into the ditch or in the grass next to the pole. I
He finally backed up so everyone could get by, and when Jan and I came back by 15 minutes later he was gone.
You can get a better idea of how long he is here.
Going straight wouldn’t work since he’s got the same type of turn at the end of the next block. And he can’t turn right for the same reason he can’t turn left.
So I not only don’t know how he got out, actually I don’t know how he got in here, either.
But I’ve got an idea I’ll check out this weekend.
As I said in last night’s blog, tomorrow we’ll head up to Katy to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and his BFF Sophie at Andretti’s Indoor Karting & Games for his birthday celebration.
Really looking forward to it.
August 19, 2023
Different, But Still Good . . .
Since Jan wanted to get her glasses adjusted today at the Sam’s Club Optical up in Webster, we decided to have lunch up that way, specifically at Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux again.
And we both got something different this time.
Jan got the Ragin’ Blackened Redfish with Double Broccoli,
while I started with a cup of their Chicken and Sausage Gumbo,
and then moved on to their Voodoo Shrimp & Grits.
I regularly have the Shrimp & Grits at Snooze, and occasionally at Gator’s, so I was interested to compare and contrast the three.
And they’re all good, but different.
Snooze’s version.
Gator’s version.
But I’ll stick with the versions from Walk-On’s and Snooze, since they’re the top two.
First up, I like the Grits in Walk-On’s dish the best. It was creamier, probably because according to the menu, it has cream cheese in it.
Seasoning-wise, I think Snooze comes out on top, with Andouille sausage, and a house-made savory soffrito, a mixture of minced onion, carrot, and celery, gently fried in olive oil until soft and fragrant.
As far as the shrimp, Walk-On’s version squeaks by. Their shrimp is bacon-wrapped and crispy-coated with a sweet chili glaze.
But you’ll need extra napkins because the shrimp is sticky and messy. But delicious.
Finishing with lunch, we headed over to the nearby Sam’s Club so Jan could get her new glasses adjusted so they sit better on her nose. Before leaving Sam’s, we availed ourselves of their $3.19/gal gas, the cheapest around. Then it was on across the street to Wal-Mart for our weekly Wal-Mart stuff, getting home by about 4:30pm
We’ve got a busy next few months coming up, starting with Landon’s 13th Birthday Party in the next week or so, date TBD. Then the weekend of the 1st of Sept, our friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt are going to be down in this area, and hopefully we’ll be able to get together a couple of times while they’re down here.
Moving on, besides Labor Day on the 4th, our granddaughter Piper’s birthday is on the 7th, followed by our daughter Brandi’s birthday is the 15th, followed by our 56th Anniversary on the 28th.
On into October, my birthday’s the 5th, and Jan’s is the 25th, and in between we’ve got the Wings Over Houston Airshow on Saturday the 14th, which is also the Ring of Fire Annular Eclipse. Then finishing up the month, we got one of Jan’s favorite holidays, Halloween.
November brings us the Nutcracker Market on the 9th, and then of course, Thanksgiving on the 23rd. And of course, mixed into all this are our usual monthly get-togethers with friends.
Like I said, a busy time coming up.
